In article ,
Chris Hogg writes:
On Fri, 12 Dec 2014 00:17:42 +0000 (UTC),
(Andrew Gabriel) wrote:

A heads-up that Amendment 3 to the wiring regs (due in January) will require
home consumer units to be made of a non-combustable material (i.e. metal),
or to be enclosed in a non-combustable enclosure. This follows a five fold
increase in 5 years of house fires starting in plastic consumer units,
often under the stairs, which are usually the only escape route. This
applies to any other switchgear too, not just the CU.

The new requirement will be delayed until January 2016, to allow
manufacturers time to produce metal consumer units in sufficient numbers.

Pleased to say I always throught the thermosoftening plastic CU's were a
liability and I have fitted commercial metal ones when I've replaced CU's
over the last ~15 years.

Is it retrospective, i.e. will everyone with a plastic CU have to get
it changed immediately or within a limited time period, or is it only
for CU's in new-builds or when one is changed during a house refurb?

Wiring regs are never retrospective.

The nearest they came to retrospective was the changes in 17th Edition
which could be interpreted to require substantial upgrades when adding
to a circuit to make the existing parts of the circuit conform.
Many BCO's seem to have taken the view in such cases that the whole
circuit can continue to conform to 16th edition regs.

--
Andrew Gabriel